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Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2009
Various Venues
Copenhagen, Denmark
July 3-12, 2009
In a survey conducted recently by the renowned Monocle Magazine (volume 03, issue 25), Copenhagen was selected as the second best city in the world due to its safety, atmosphere, welfare, infrastructure and—one could be tempted to add—its jazz festival.
Over the years, Copenhagen Jazz Festival has established itself as an international event, which brings together a plethora of people of all nationalities gathered to play for and with each other. It has often been said that music is a transnational language and this is, indeed, a point that is valid here.
Attending the festival, one is likely to experience a wealth of genres more or less associated with jazz and an abundance of challenging collaborations, but the great tradition is also kept alive. Thus, in Copenhagen one is able to encounter every possible style associated with jazz from early Dixieland and ragtime to swing, bebop and avant-garde while, at the same time, bearing witness to the deconstruction of generic conventions.
Actually, it could be said that one of the defining characteristics of the post-modern jazz artist is that he/she is able to maintain a sort of double consciousness where jazz tradition is both referenced and transgressed. In Denmark, this is especially true of the new generation of musicians associated with labels such as ILK, Barefoot Records and the group of artists centered around the distribution company, Pladekisten. Among them, guitarist
Jakob Bro
guitarb.1978
Soren Kjaergaard
piano
Jacob Anderskov
pianoA Musical Roadmap of the City
With about 900 concerts hosted by 100 venues, the festival offers immense possibilities to even the most demanding listener. The famous Danish philosopher, S?ren Kierkegaard, who was born in Copenhagen, comes to mind with his dictum that the most important thing in life is to make a choice. What matters most is not whether the choice is right or wrong—one is bound to find out—but rather the importance of taking the plunge, making an active decision as to the many choices in life. The same thing goes with this year's festival program. With several gigs taking place at the same time, and often overlapping, it's impossible to hear everything. One strategy for listening is to walk around the city. That way, one is able to move, not only geographically, but also stylistically through the diverse musical landscape that is the Copenhagen Jazz Festival.
At the harbor area, there's a lot of the more traditionally minded groups. The venue, Nyhavns Ankeret (The Anchor) along with Restaurant Dix-Neuf, located more centrally in the city, makes the exploration of the older styles of jazz a joyful journey. Names such as The Spirit of New Orleans, Kim Menzer Jazz & Blues Band, Orion Brass Band and Ole Sterndorff's Ragtimeband speak for themselves. Here, one encounters a relaxed, humorous atmosphere with plenty of room for dancing, smiling and funny anecdotes.
The venue Nyhavns Ankeret (The Anchor) located around the harbor area. The reason for the venue's name is self-explanatory. Here caught on one of the rare rainy days during the festival.
Moving into the heart of the city, one finds a lot of the most significant open venues such as the areas around Gr?br?dre Torv, Vandkunsten and Frue Plads, which hosted music within the realm of straight and progressive mainstream. Some of the discoveries to be found here were the tenor saxophonist Jan Harbeck, bassist
Steve Swallow
bassb.1940
Mikkel Ploug
guitarb.1978
Tenor saxophonist Jan Harbeck is an example of the tradition in Danish jazz of exploring the Great American Songbook and with his album In The Still of The Night (Stunt, 2008), he received widespread critical acclaim. For his concert at Vandkunsten he brought the quartet that also plays on the album: pianist Henrik Gunde, bassist Eske N?rrelykke and the ever-present drummer Kresten Osgood. It was a tightly knit constellation that clearly enjoyed playing with each other and the joy spread out to the audience as well. Highlights included "Poinciana—Song of the Tree" and a thoughtful version of
John Lewis
piano1920 - 2001
Harbeck is a former big band player and the festival offered rich opportunities to explore big band music. It is a music that is often perceived as one of the more archaic forms associated with jazz, bringing up nostalgic associations of ballrooms and bootlegging. This, of course, is not true as countless visionary bandleaders from
Count Basie
piano1904 - 1984
Duke Ellington
piano1899 - 1974
Gerry Mulligan
saxophone, baritone1927 - 1996
Gerald Wilson
composer / conductor1918 - 2014
Oliver Nelson
saxophone1932 - 1975
Quincy Jones
arranger1933 - 2024
At its best, big band music offers a unique possibility of exploring texture and polyphony and some of the big bands that were present at the festival proved that the form is far from being outworn artistically. The span ranged from traditionally minded ensembles like Erling Kroner New Music Orchestra and Klüvers Big Band to the more experimental sounds of New Jungle Orchestra, Tip Toe Big Big Band, The Orchestra and Geir Lysne Ensemble. However, the big band that combined past and present in the most convincing way was Steve Swallow & Bohusl?n Big Band. They played an enchanting concert at Vor Frue with a program made up entirely of Swallow's compositions.
To hear Swallow as an arranger and conductor of his own songs is an event not to be missed. By now he has established his name not only as superior bassist but also as composer of extraordinary standard and a tune such as "Eiderdown" has become a modern standard. As composer as well as arranger, Swallow works eminently with the textures of the music. Like Gerry Mulligan, he shuns the heavy sound of the big band in favor of a more complex and light approach. In his music, there's room for referencing the classic swing of Count Basie in the appropriately named "Ballroom," but there's also the decidedly modern, polyphonic chaos of "Playing in Traffic," which resembles a traffic jam set into music with horns honking away.
Several times, Swallow mentioned his gratefulness at working with the Swedish big band, and it was easy to understand why when hearing the tight yet bouncing rhythms and melodies that floated from the orchestra, who understood how to realize the music, paying attention to the tiniest detail. That also included doing a trick of showmanship, which has become something of a staple at this particular venue, located as it is near a church with bells often chiming in. For the musicians, it has become a particular challenge to integrate the sounds of bells into the music, and this was done elegantly by Swallow and his orchestra, who used the timing of the bells to stunning effect in the lyrical meditation "Seventeen Chords."
There was a sense of tight yet relaxed choreography with Swallow often stepping back to assume the role of a quiet conductor, gently leading his band into a swirling ocean of sound. There were also times when he stepped up as soloist, as in the beautiful ballad "Away," and, naturally, this caused a huge round of applause from the audience. However, the real star of the afternoon was the music itself, perfectly realized by the leader and his orchestra.
Steve Swallow and The Bohusl?n Big Band.
Peter Rosendal and Mikkel Ploug are much younger than Swallow, but have already shown considerable talent as composers and leaders of their own groups. Both played numerous gigs at the festival, but their concerts at the open venues were among their best performances.
For his concert at Gr?br?dre Torv, Peter Rosendal had expanded his usual trio of Janus Templeton (drums) and Greg Earle (bass) with ace guitarist Jacob Fischer and saxophonist Hans Ulrik, adding more nuances to his self-penned compositions.
Along with Lars Winther and Magnus Hjorth, who also played at the festival, Peter Rosendal belongs to the cream of the crop of new Nordic pianists that works within the realm of progressive mainstream. The concert showed him as an inventive lyrical pianist, who also adds a healthy dose of humor to his compositions, as is evident in the silly naming of tunes like "Peter og Ulven" ("Peter and the Wolf"). Rosendal and his expanded trio came across as both playful and serious.
Peter Rosendal and his expanded trio playing at Gr?br?dre Torv.
Humor is a thing that is somewhat absent in the music of guitarist Mikkel Ploug, but it isn't something that is missed as his tunes still carry a melodic freshness that frees them from meandering. Ploug has collaborated intensely with one of the most talked about saxophonists of the moment,
Mark Turner
saxophone, tenorb.1965
Kevin Brow
drumsAt Vandkunsten, Ploug was premiering all new material and the songs augur well for his next album. Among the highlights were the Spanish-tinged "Villa" and "The Loop," making fine use, as the title suggests, of patterns of repetition. As time has passed, Ploug's melodic gift has become clearer and this was evident in the new material. Badenhorst plays wonderfully with the same detached warmth and cool nonchalance of a young
Lee Konitz
saxophone, alto1927 - 2020
Mikkel Ploug playing at Vandkunsten. From left to right: Ploug, Badenhorst, Brow, Skovbakke.
A Danish Diva
One of the most fascinating things about the Copenhagen Jazz Festival is that an open venue not only signifies cobblestone and cosy cafés but also large green areas with live music. At Kongens Have (The King's Garden) and Det Kongelige Danske Haveselskab (The Royal Danish Garden Society), one had the possibility to get acquainted with many of the new talents such as emerging pianist August Rosenbaum as well as the established names like Danish tenor giant
Jesper Thilo
b.1941With Sinne Eegs concert at Det Kongelige Danske Haveselskab, connoisseurs of vocal jazz were given a special treat. The later years have witnessed a veritable boom in the rise of talented female Danish jazz singers. Names such as Sidsel Storm, Katrine Madsen, Malene Mortensen and C?cillie Norby, who has released a string of albums on Blue Note, testify to the strength of Danish vocal jazz, but right now there seems to be a singer that towers above the rest: Sinne Eeg.
Vocal supreme. Sinne Eeg at Det Kongelige Danske Haveselskab with bassist Mads Vinding.
Eeg's breakthrough came with the masterpiece, Waiting For Dawn (Calibrated, 2007), where she brought together an A-list of Scandinavian jazz musicians to interpret a program consisting mainly of her own compositions. It was this quartet of Swedish pianist Lars Jansson, Danish bass-giant
Mads Vinding
bassb.1948
Nights at The Black Diamond
Whereas the open venues were able to provide a relaxed, informal atmosphere, there was a much more serious air around the concerts held at the Royal Library—also known as "Den Sorte Diamant" (The Black Diamond). The concerts shared a similar Nordic sound and all the acts had or could have recorded for the German label ECM.
The Royal Library or "The Black Diamond" as it is also called due to its color and shape.
Pianist,
Enrico Pieranunzi
pianob.1949
Joey Baron
drumsb.1955
Norwegian bassist
Arild Andersen
bass, acousticb.1945
Tommy Smith
saxophone, tenorb.1967
Carsten Dahl
pianob.1967
Percussionist wizard
Marilyn Mazur
percussionb.1955
John Taylor
piano1942 - 2015
Anders Jormin
bassAvant-garde Locations
If the concerts at The Black Diamond gave an impression of jazz as high art mostly suited to quiet concert halls, the concerts held at the venues Jazzk?lderen (The Jazz Cellar), LitteraturHaus, R?huset, Borups H?jskole and M/S Staubnitz showed jazz in all its wildly eclectic, youthful splendor.
Bassist Thommy Anderson performing at Jazzk?lderen.
Jazzk?lderen hosted one of the most interesting new labels in Danish jazz: Barefoot Records. Like its more famous big brother, ILK, it is a collective of young Scandinavian musicians, who make music across generic boundaries. Some of the mainstays of the label are bassist Adam Pultz Melbye and drummer Haakon Berre, who have just released a mind- blowing album with free jazz legend
Peter Brötzmann
woodwinds1941 - 2023
The Venue M/S Staubnitz as seen from the outside.
During the festival, M/S Staubnitz was both literally and figuratively a flagship for the new Danish avant-garde. Performing at the old ship was a Who's Who of the Danish underground. Everyone from Kresten Osgood to members of the experimental label collective yoyooyoy was present. Yoyooyoy is also a label whose impossible name alone seems to suggest that they don't care much about the commercial distribution of art—and rightly so.
The concert, with some of the most prominent members of the collective, saxophonist Johannes Lunds and trombonist Marie Bertel, who work together under the moniker Gud Er Kvinde (God Is A Woman), assaulted the senses with an extreme wall of sound. The noise of the brass instruments occasionally became further enhanced by a row of guitar and bass pedals, creating a massive carpet of noise and feedback, throwing the audience into a state between fascination, joy and terror. Mix the wails of Peter Br?tzmann and
Albert Ayler
saxophone, tenor1936 - 1970
Blowing everything to pieces. Johannes Lunds and Marie Bertel of Gud Er Kvinde.
Inevitably a project like Gud Er Kvinde will divide the waters. Fortunately, a lot of the bands present at the M/S Staubnitz, in spite of their experimental nature, were more accessible. Thus, one could encounter, among many other things, the consistently beautiful music of guitarist Jakob Bro's trio with drummer Jacob H?yer and bassist Anders Christensen, jazzy post-rock from Grammofunch and the atmospheric electro-jazz of Emil de Waal and Spejderrobot. The main attraction, however, was a marathon concert with multitalented drummer Kresten Osgood's project Hvad Er Klokken? who made their concert into a veritable feast. Encompassing everything from free jazz and rock to the funky soul-jazz of
Stanley Turrentine
saxophone, tenor1934 - 2000
It could be easy to forget the other avant-garde venues with so many exciting things taking place at M/S Staubnitz, but especially LitteraturHaus, where the Danish experimental guitarist Mark Solborg premiered new material with the trumpeter,
Herb Robertson
trumpetb.1951
Drummer Stefan Pasborg played a smoking concert with his Odessa 5 orchestra at the old meatpacking district where R?huset is located. In front of a packed venue with many young people attending, he explored original material and reworked the music of Igor Stravinsky and
Charles Mingus
bass, acoustic1922 - 1979
The absolute revelation, though, in terms of drummers, was the solo concert by the living free jazz legend
Andrew Cyrille
drumsb.1939
Art Blakey
drums1919 - 1990
Andrew Cyrille at R?huset.
The Art of Solo Piano
As usual S?ren Kj?rgaard was extremely busy during the festival, playing in everything from the mainstream ensemble of saxophonist Niels Lyhne to the free-form post-rock improvisations of the group White trash. However, there was a chance to see Kj?rgaard alone as he played a solo concert at K?benhavns Hovedbibliotek (Copenhagen's Library). It was a gig that emphasized his knowledge of jazz tradition, bringing in the repertoire of Duke Ellington with the classic "Mood Indigo" suddenly arising out of the blue, but the concert also showed Kj?rgaard's use of humor as one unlucky member of the audience coughed. Kj?rgaard cleverly used the sound of the cough as a jumping off point for an improvisation where the sound was layered electronically and echoed in the playing. Thus, there was both room for beauty and humor at Kj?rgaard's solo recitation.
The same could be said about
Chick Corea
piano1941 - 2021
Thelonious Monk
piano1917 - 1982
Bud Powell
piano1924 - 1966
Bill Evans
piano1929 - 1980
The strength of Corea was that he reached out, very verbally, towards the audience. At LitteraturHaus, Jacob Anderskov did the exact opposite: in order to speak, he turned inside to create the music, letting the notes do all the communication. It was a recitation of great beauty and concentration that underlined why Anderskov is the most interesting pianist in the country right now. His musical knowledge comes out unforced and quite naturally. He has an intuitive feeling for the ebb and flow, crescendo and diminuendo of his instrument, mastering both percussive tactility and light melodies that seem to flow out of the air. Never was there a time where the music lost momentum, and when Anderskov said that he thought that it was time to stop, a feeling of closure was achieved outside the conventional formalities of sets and encores.
Old Masters Revisited
Jacob Anderskov is just at the beginning of his career but this year's festival witnessed what might be one of the last performances of a living legend:
Yusef Lateef
woodwinds1920 - 2013
Lateef has always been a musician that has broken down boundaries between East and West, avant-garde and popular culture. His music is carried by a deep spiritual understanding of life that gives his music an unshakable depth. While it was clear to see and hear that he is coming towards the end of his life's journey, he still plays with the soul and conviction of a true artist. The meeting between the old master and the young talented generation of Danish musicians, Osgood and Tranberg, underlined the ability of music to communicate beyond age and nationality. The music was simply about reaching into the human condition.
The concert was played as one continuous suite where the polyphonic use of instruments, combined with recurrent melodic motives, gave the expression of a meditative music in motion. Percussionist Adam Rudolph particularly added a variety of musical colors, using a frame drum, flutes and congas. Lateef also played on a variety of instruments, giving the music a rich texture. However, the most pregnant instrument was still the saxophone, but his soulful chant and poignant piano also gave the music a strong spiritual vibe. As a whole, the concert became a work of art comparable to
Pharoah Sanders
saxophone, tenor1940 - 2022
While the concert with Yusef Leteef was a testimony to the artistic strength of a living legend, the concert with trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg revisiting his homage to
Miles Davis
trumpet1926 - 1991
The concert followed the structure of the album which is a suite with an intro and a division into nine colors: "White," "Yellow," "Orange," "Red," "Green," "Blue," "Electric Red," "Indigo" and "Violet." In terms of style, the music is all over the map. From abstract meditations to neo-classical work with woodwinds, heated funk and world-music, Aura is a work that seems to catch the chameleon-like nature of Davis' artistic personality. More than that, with its eclectic use of genres, it also became a portrait of the jazz scene in Denmark as it is now and a microcosm of the jazz festival. This was emphasized by the fact that the concert brought together all kinds of people, old and young, but, more importantly, there was a meeting between different generations of musicians. Established Danish musicians like Marilyn Mazur, pianist Thomas Clausen and Mikkelborg himself played with the young and talented Blood Sweat Drum 'n' Bass Big Band.
Whether it's Mikkelborg re-interpreting his classic work, Jakob Bro playing old standards with his trio or Kresten Osgood destroying the boundaries between avant-garde and popular culture, it is all about keeping the music fresh and getting a new perspective on the evolving history of jazz.
The name of this year's festival poster, created by the artist Tal R, is named "Jazz Is Not Born Yet" and, in a way, it pretty much sums up the post-modern patchwork nature of this year's festival. It wasn't about propagating a restricted image of jazz, but questioning the idea of what the music is. Is it improvised? Composed? Blues-based? Electronic? Acoustic? Vocal? Instrumental?
Like Samuel Johnson being asked by Boswell what poetry is, it becomes hard to define exactly what jazz is. To quote the famous pair:
Boswell: Then, Sir, what is poetry?
Johnson: Why, Sir, it is much easier to say what it is not. We all know what light is; but it is not easy to tell what it is.
Coming to the end of the festival, one is, indeed, still struggling to define what jazz is, but what matters in the end is that at this year's Copenhagen Jazz Festival, the light of jazz still shone as bright as ever.
Photo Credit
Jakob Baekgaard
Kristoffer Juel Poulsen
Tags
Copenhagen Jazz Festival
Live Reviews
Jakob Baekgaard
Denmark
Copenhagen
Jakob Bro
Soren Kjaergaard
Jacob Anderskov
Steve Swallow
Mikkel Ploug
John Lewis
Count Basie
duke ellington
Gerry Mulligan
Gerald Wilson
Oliver Nelson
Quincy Jones
Mark Turner
Kevin Brow
Lee Konitz
Jesper Thilo
Mads Vinding
Enrico Pieranunzi
Joey Baron
Arild Andersen
Tommy Smith
Carsten Dahl
Marilyn Mazur
John Taylor
Anders Jormin
Peter Brotzmann
Albert Ayler
Stanley Turrentine
Herb Robertson
Charles Mingus
Andrew Cyrille
Art Blakey
Chick Corea
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Bill Evans
Yusef Lateef
Pharoah Sanders
Miles Davis
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